Page 48 of Enemies Under One Roof

He passed over the box of tissues from the table beside him.

‘I’m alright,’ she said, looking anything but, as she took a few tissues, dabbing them against her eyes before picking up her own water glass and taking a long sip.

He ached to console her; she’d clearly adored her parents and vice versa, and he couldn’t help wondering what that would be like. To have such an honest devotion to each other, and to your child. To be part of a safe, loving family where you were a priority not a prop. It gave him an even deeper understanding of how crushing their deaths must have been and why, in her grief, she’d hidden behind Ivy.

‘How did your parents meet?’ she asked, turning the glass around in her hands.

His lips twitched. ‘Okay brace yourself for this. My dad was a jeweller.’

She choked on a mouthful of water, and her eyes misted again, thankfully for a completely different reason.

‘Really?’ she asked.

‘Really!’

‘Do you think he made any of the rings?’

‘Unlikely. I did some investigating before I sold them, discreet investigating, but there was no definite answer without contacting some of my mother’s ex-lovers, and that was one rabbit hole I definitely didn’t want to go down. And he pretty much gave up working once they got together. He didn’t have a studio at home, and I never saw him do any work.’

‘Did he ever go on location with her?’ She put the glass back on the table and pulled the quilt up under her chin.

He shook his head. ‘He always stayed at home.’

‘Oh, right. To be with you?’

‘No. That was long before I came along. I’m not sure he knew I existed when Mum was there, and when she wasn’t…’ He searched for a word to describe how it had seemed like the light had been turned off inside his father when she wasn’t there, and it only came back on when she was. Ethan had been completely the same. A chill went over him at the reminder. ‘He struggled.’

‘Who looked after you?’

‘I had a nanny.’

‘The same one?’

He shook his head again. ‘They’d change about every six months. Ironically, my mother would get jealous of my father becoming too close to them.’

‘Your mum was constantly away, your dad was mentally absent, and you had a different nanny twice a year? That’s appalling.’ Anger flushed her cheeks and compassion coloured her voice, but no pity.

That he couldn’t stand.

‘I learnt never to get too attached to them,’ he assured her. It had made for a lonely first ten years, but it wasn’t until he was older that he realised how completely lacking in love and friendship that period of his life had been. And how it wasn’t that way for everyone. That not everyone’s mother would disappear for months at a time and then only be interested in you because of a brief role you had to play.

He twisted towards her to see her hazel eyes brimming with an empathy he felt deep in his core, spreading warmth and hope throughout him, easing some of his anguish. Because years later it still stung, as much as he tried to pretend otherwise. His parents had been the polar opposites to Annie’s. How excruciating it must have been to lose the kind of love and support and absolute foundation her parents had provided her with? How would that change you? How would you ever recover from the loss?

‘What were your parents thinking, not making you a priority?’ She pushed her hair off her face.

‘No idea. And whenever my mother was at home, there was usually a camera crew for photos in the staged bedroom.’

‘Staged bedroom? Not your own?’

‘My real bedroom was next to the nanny’s and miles away from my parents’ one. I liked it more.’ He shrugged. ‘I didn’t have to worry I’d break some priceless artefact, not suitable for a kid’s room in the first place.’

She shook her head, her eyes wide and reached over and took his hand, linking their fingers.

‘How could they…? I don’t know what to say.’

What more was there to say, other than they hadn’t loved him, or made him a priority? But he’d already revealed too much. He needed to pull back. And he would, in a minute, but he couldn’t seem to let go of her hand, so instead he raised it to his lips.

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